Maharashtra tricks TD men to board aircraft: Marta politics

Independent Media


On Tuesday morning, the Maharashtra police scuffled with the TD MLAs and forcibly shifted them to a van which sped to Aurangabad. It was believed that they were being taken to a jail but in the end, it turned out to be a tactic of the Maharashtra government to pack them off to Hyderabad.

When the entourage was near Aurangabad, the Nanded superintendent of police filed a petition before the magistrate who sentenced them to judicial remand stating all cases booked against were withdrawn.

The Maharashtra government also kept an aircraft ready and deployed a huge contingent of police around the airport before the convoy carrying the TD leaders reached the airport at 7.30 pm after a gruelling seven-hour journey.

However, Mr Naidu and his MLAs created a scene at the Aurangabad airport for over an hour, staging a dharna on tarmac and refusing to board the flight No IC 021. They raised slogans against Maharashtra government and police.

“Our demands are genuine and our stand is correct,” Mr Naidu said. “Police harassed us and also beat up my MLAs. Why did you bring us to the airport? You were supposed to take us to jail.”

He accused the police of playing with the lives of the TD MLAs who had taken ill because of the stay at the ITI centre.

Police pleaded with Mr Naidu to get into the aircraft since the situation outside was tense. Pro-Babli irrigation project groups and Shiv Sainiks had reportedly gathered at the Aurangabad jail, where Mr Naidu and his team were supposed to be brought.

When all attempts to persuade Mr Naidu and his team failed, police swooped on them and forcibly pushed them into the plane.

“We won’t leave Maharashtra before seeing the
Babli project,” Mr Naidu told this correspondent. “We have a clear right over the waters. Maharashtra is stealing the state’s waters. We will continue our agitation till the Centre and State governments protect Andhra Pradesh’s interests,” Mr Naidu said.